Corrected: Taiwan’s FCFC shuts Mailiao No 2 SM plant on pipeline leak

Correction: In the ICIS news story headlined "Taiwan's FCFC shuts Mailiao No 1, 2 SM plants on pipeline leak" dated 13 August 2012, please read in the headline ... Mailiao No 2 SM plant ... instead of ... Mailiao No 1, 2 SM plants ... A corrected story with recasts all throughout follows.

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--?xml:namespace>Taiwan’s Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (FCFC) has shut its 350,000 tonne/year No 2 styrene monomer (SM) plant at Mailiao following a pipeline leak on 12 August, a company source said on Monday.

FCFC issued a fire alert atthe SM plant at 16:00 hours Taiwan time (08:00 GMT) on 12 August because of a leak at the unit's alkylation facility pipeline, the source said.

The reason for the leak is still being investigated, according to the source.

FCFC owns three SM plants at Mailiao in total. Its 250,000 tonne/year No 1 unit and its 600,000tonne/year No 3 plant are running normally, the company source said.

Contract cargo supply of SM from FCFC will not be affected at present, but it could not confirm whether the supply for September would be disrupted, a market source said.

The No 3 plant was originally scheduled to be shut for regular maintenance in mid-August, but it may be delayed now because of tight SM supply from FCFC, according to market sources.